Pods, Save the Queen!

Hello and welcome to Podside the Queen,

where I am delighted to be joined by Robert Lacy,

author of one of the most talked about Royal Books of the Year,

Battle of Brothers William Harry and the Inside Story of a Family in tumult.

And it is publication day today, Thursday, although this is Wednesday, when I'm talking to Robert and we are joined on the phone in the end today after we had a few gremlins with our little video calls so we've managed to make it work and

Robert I'm delighted that you've been able to join us it's very exciting to have you with

us.

Thank you Anne I'm honored to be Pod saving the Queen along with you. Oh tremendous. This book how long has it been in the making for you?

Well in the sense it's been in the making, what, 40 years or so, the time I've been writing about

the royal family because, although obviously it focuses on the two brothers so dynamic so attractive and now so for the

time being at least tragically separated it's also a book about the circumstances and the history that

produced them. Thus it looks very closely at the 80s and 90s, those terrible times that we thought as

royal was over and done and now the chickens are coming home to Roost because these two boys

in ways that we can discuss I think are very much victims and products with those troubled years.

And then in a third sense it looks at the whole function of the

modern monarchy which plays such a wonderful role I think in the life of this country.

Clearly the press coverage it gets, the public interest that is devoted to the royal

family shows that despite the scoffers and they're quite entitled to their stopping.

The monarchy presses buttons in people's minds and hearts in this country.

It plays a very important role, particularly at a time of disconnect and

discomfort like the present. And so I also try to show in the book the way in which the royal system has

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